The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“American Energy (Executive Calendar)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S276-S277 on Feb. 9.
The Department oversees energy policies and is involved in how the US handles nuclear programs. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department's misguided energy regulations have caused large losses to consumers for decades.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
American Energy
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the Biden administration's war on American energy.
Over the last 2 years, Joe Biden's energy policies seem to have been based on two principles. One is restricting American energy production, and the second, regrettably, is a policy that benefits China.
Time and again, Joe Biden's energy policies have hurt America and have helped China. On Joe Biden's first day in office, he shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline, and I think he did it for spite. It would have brought 800,000 barrels of oil to this country every single day.
Joe Biden then stopped all new energy leases on Federal land, and in Wyoming we have a lot of Federal land. He did it in a way that was blatantly illegal. A Federal judge actually ordered Joe Biden to follow the law, to sell energy leases.
Follow the law, Mr. President.
As of today, Joe Biden has leased fewer acres of Federal land for energy than any President in modern times, and he raised the royalty rate for oil and gas development on Federal lands. Now, this is the fee that the government collects for energy that is produced on Federal lands. He raised it by half, and he did it overnight. These higher fees will get passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, and--oh, by the way--people are noticing the price at the pump is going up--
again.
Joe Biden also raised taxes on natural gas by billions of dollars. He raised taxes on coal by $1 billion as well. As a nation today, we are still producing about 2 million barrels of oil less than was projected we would be producing every day, a number of years ago, before the pandemic.
With lower production and higher taxes, it is no wonder that energy prices have been painful for the American people--punishing for the American people--who are just trying to make ends meet. Working families have lost nearly $3,000 specifically because of Joe Biden's radical leftwing energy policy. We are paying a lot more than that for additional causes of inflation, but on energy alone, it has been about
$3,000 more than they should have spent in a normal situation.
And who have been the big winners under all of this? Well, regrettably, it has been China. We are really less independent, less competitive, and more dependent on China. This is compared to the day that Joe Biden took office. I am going to give you a couple of examples.
First, Joe Biden ended America's role in helping developing countries--other developing countries--explore for energy. Many countries are very poor, but they do have massive energy resources. They just need some help in getting to use them. Millions of people could have benefited and been lifted out of poverty if we had helped them use the energy that they already had.
Joe Biden stubbornly refuses. As a result, now these countries that need money to develop their energy resources--what are they doing? Go talk to a high school class. Joe Biden ought to try that. They will tell him what is happening. Those countries are turning to China. More and more countries, of course, then will owe money to China.
We know China uses debt and loans as a weapon. More debt to China means more control by China, overall, of these additional countries. Joe Biden won't let us in the United States help these countries or help the World Bank or help other lending institutions lend to those countries--and we see it all over Africa--because Joe Biden is too pure, and he doesn't like their energy. So he just turns them right over to China for predatory lending.
Joe Biden's obsession with electric vehicles also is turning over American power and money to China. The batteries in electric vehicles require a specific set of critical minerals--a specific set of critical minerals that goes into the batteries of electric vehicles. Well, we can mine it in this country. Oh, no, we can't. Joe Biden says: No, don't mine it in America. He is actually shutting down mining in this country, and he has been doing it since the day he took office. We are not going to let you use the minerals that are critical for the electric vehicles that he wants us to use that come from the United States.
So where are we going to go? Oh, but let's send more money to China. With supply and demand, our demand goes up. China has it to supply, and prices go up as well.
Just in the past few weeks, Joe Biden has shut down proposed copper mines in Minnesota and in Alaska. Well, where are we going to get the minerals for the electric vehicles that Joe Biden and the Democrats want us to buy? China and countries under the influence of China.
China produces three-quarters of all of the lithium-ion batteries. China also has 70 percent of the world's production capacity for the key parts of EV batteries. China has a majority of the world's lithium, a majority of the world's cobalt, a majority of the world's graphite processing and refining capacity. All of these are necessary for the electric vehicles that the Democrats and Joe Biden say we must buy. Where are these going to come from? There is only one place, and they won't let us have it from America. They won't let us use what we have here.
China now dominates copper and cobalt mining in places like the Congo. The conditions at many of these mines--and this has been widely reported--are inhumane: child labor, brutal conditions. These are not like the mines that we have here in the United States or the mines like we have in Wyoming. Our mines in Wyoming and in the United States are technically sophisticated and professional. Many of the mines and the miners in the Congo are not professional at all. We are talking about young mothers who are working for a few dollars a day and are controlled by China. That is Joe Biden's answer to electric vehicles and every Democrat's answer to electric vehicles.
These young mothers often bring their babies with them to the mines. Not in the United States--oh, no, we are too pure here in the United States to be able to mine for the chemicals that are needed for the electric vehicles. So Joe Biden wants mothers to take babies into the mines in the Congo for the minerals for the electric vehicles that he is mandating that we drive here in the future.
So what happens to these mothers and these babies? Well, they inhale toxic cobalt all day long.
According to a United Nations report, 40,000 children are scavenging for cobalt in the Congo, for the electric vehicles, so China can sell us the chemicals that Joe Biden and the Democrats will not let us get out of the ground here in the United States. Most people would call this criminal. Women and children in Africa are inhaling toxic minerals so that the climate elites in San Francisco can drive their electric vehicles.
I guess that is the American dream. That is the Democrat dream for America: Force these people into this kind of labor so they can drive the electric vehicles of their dreams.
China also sells less expensive EVs, and they are for sale all over Europe. Well, they may be on the road in San Francisco and in Manhattan in just a few years.
Then there is the bloodshed and brutality that China uses to make solar panels. Joe Biden loves solar panels as much as he loves wind turbines. Well, there is a shortage of solar panels in this country right now. Why? Because of the law we passed 2 years ago to stop buying Chinese products made by forced labor. Well, solar panels require something called polysilicon. Nearly half of the world's polysilicon is made now by forced labor in China. Democrats have to choose between their green energy fairy tales and upholding basic human rights. It seems like the church that they worship, the church of wind and solar and wishful thinking, is what they have chosen over human rights.
I hope the Democrats agree with me that we should not make a green transition on the backs of forced labor. The Democrats seem to feel more guilt about burning oil than about solar panels being made by slave labor. It is hard to imagine. This is just another in a long line of Democrat delusions.
As if this all weren't enough, Joe Biden is even giving our tax dollars to China. Two weeks ago today, the Department of Energy announced that Joe Biden was sending another $1.6 million to a green energy company with ties to China. The company is called LanzaTech. It is a carbon capture company. Joe Biden has already given them $10 million. He gave them money right after they signed a partnership with China's official energy company, Sinopec.
This company, LanzaTech, has disclosed that ``the Chinese Government may intervene or influence our operations at any time.''
So let's get this straight. Joe Biden is giving money to a company that says the Chinese Government ``may intervene or influence our operations at any time.''
What do we know about this company? Well, we know that it has some ties to the Democratic Party's top donors--the top donors--the people who contribute to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Members of this body who go and ask them for more money.
Who is on the board? Well, former President Obama's campaign manager is a member of the board. Is this just a coincidence that, then, Joe Biden would move money, U.S. taxpayer dollars, to that company? Maybe it is not.
The Department of Energy has announced a $200 million grant to a battery manufacturer with close ties to the communist Chinese Government. The company's financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission admit--and I had these filings at the Energy Committee just last week to show these to the Secretary of the Department of Energy. The filings say this--now, remember, this is a company to which the Democrat Department of Energy announced a $200 million grant.
The FEC filing says that China ``exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities and may intervene at any time with no notice.''
In other words, the company admits that it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party is controlling the company's U.S. Department of Energy's $200 million grant.
So I wrote to the Department of Energy about the Department's review process for this grant. How can you do this? It says it in the filings.
Finally, last Thursday, I got a response. It says that now--now, this year--even though they did the grant last year of $200 million, just now, they are going to do a due diligence review of the grant. That is from their letter.
My question is, Why don't we do a due diligence review in this country before we announce we are going to give $200 million to a company so completely tied and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party? Why? Why doesn't the Department of Energy do their homework?
Last week, the Deputy Secretary of Energy testified before the Energy Committee. He said money hasn't yet gone out the door. I hope he is right. I hope money hasn't gone out the door. We need to stop it now before it goes out the door. We don't need to send any more money--our tax dollars--to China.
If we want carbon capture, it should come to Wyoming. They don't need to put money in these companies. We do it in Wyoming. We have a School of Energy Resources. We have a wonderful location. It is being done in the right way. They had a whole XPRIZE granted to the research being done at the University of Wyoming through the School of Energy Resources. The administration, it seems, when it comes to energy, would much rather go to China than go to the United States. That is Joe Biden's view of the world right now. Wyoming is ready to do carbon capture better than anybody in the world.
I am not sure why the administration turns to China rather than to America, just like I don't know why they have gone to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Russia in the past for energy rather than in America.
Joe Biden's policies continue to rob the American people and pay off China. Joe Biden even sold 1 million barrels of oil from our emergency petroleum reserve to China. Then he said he was doing all of us a favor because he was going to bring down prices. This is a President who has been wrong and wrong and wrong.
I have introduced legislation to ensure we never sell any of our emergency stockpile to China ever again. The House of Representatives has already passed legislation to do that. The legislation was actually bipartisan. It got 100 Democrats who voted for it. Why doesn't Chuck Schumer bring it to the floor of the Senate today? Why not? Why isn't he here? A hundred Democrats joined Republicans to say we shouldn't do this.
People in this body get it. The White House clearly doesn't. The Department of Energy clearly doesn't. The administration doesn't. Joe Biden is held hostage by the far left of his party.
Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is for us, not for our enemies. America's energy policy is supposed to be for us, not for our enemies. It is not what we have gotten from this President.
Next week, I am going to introduce legislation to ban administration officials from going to work for China. For 2 years, Joe Biden has strangled American energy production; at the same time, he has made us more dependent on China for critical minerals and for so much of what this Nation needs.
It is time for Joe Biden and the Democrats in this body to remember whom we work for, and that is the American people.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
